The Man Whose Dream Came True

by Julian Symons

  ‘Caracas. I’m not even sure where it is.’

  ‘Venezuela. Perfect climate. You’ve got a passport?’

  ‘Yes. Carlos made me get one, said I might need it sometime.’

  ‘Get a smallpox inoculation tomorrow. It’s compulsory.’

  She giggled and then was serious. ‘You won’t be able to take all that money out.’

  He had not forgotten what Jenny said, and now he was able to improve on it ‘I’m going to buy one of those dummy books that people use for cigars. I shall put the money in that and post it to myself at the Grand Hotel, Caracas. We’ll be there when it arrives. It’s a million to one against its being opened.’

  ‘We shall want some– I shall take two-fifty with me.’ On the way back to London he said, ‘You do want to come.’

  ‘Yes. I’ve had Carlos. And you know that day, when you found out I wasn’t Fiona Mallory. I wanted to stay. Your face then, if you could have seen it.’ She began to laugh and he laughed too. It was almost the first time in his life that he had laughed at himself. ‘We’ll make a good partnership,’ she said, and he knew she was right.

  Her flat was in Hill Street. When they arrived he handed the driver a ten pound note and told him to keep the change. It was a wonderful feeling.

  The flat was interior decorator’s Regency, with everything possible done in stripes. She poured drinks from a cocktail cabinet done in differently striped woods. ‘To Caracas. Do you know something? Hours ago I was hungry. I’ll make bacon and eggs.’

  ‘I don’t want bacon and eggs.’

  She giggled. ‘In the bedroom the ceiling’s white stars in a blue sky. You look up at it.’

  ‘Or you do.’

  In the bedroom she took off his jacket, felt inside it for the wallet, spread the money on the bed and started to kiss it. ‘Doesn’t it make you feel good?’

  He pushed her back. ‘Come on.’

  ‘I’m keeping these glasses on.’

  ‘It’s the first time I’ve made love to a girl in dark glasses.’

  Five minutes later they heard voices in the sitting-room. She had scrambled off the bed, but they were both still naked when the door opened. Carlos Cotton stood in the doorway. He was wearing a dark pinstripe suit and a sober tie. He stood staring at them. Then he said ‘Get dressed,’ and closed the door.

  There were two other men with Cotton in the living-room when they entered it, and Tony had seen them both before. One was the bruiser named Lefty. The other was the small dark man who had stubbed out a cigarette on his hand. Cotton had a glass in his hand.

  ‘I won’t ask you to have a drink, I see you’ve helped yourselves.’ He spoke to Fiona. ‘It’s a fine night and I decided to drive back. Just as well. Take off those glasses.’

  She took them off. Her bruised eye was half-closed. The other eye was wild, frightened.

  ‘I like to see who I’m talking to.’ He turned to Tony, his manner calm, his voice quiet. ‘You’ve given me a lot of trouble.’

  Tony did not know what to say. ‘And now you’ve had one on me, friend. You’d better go.’

  Cotton was letting him go. He could hardly believe it. He moved towards the door and then turned. ‘Fiona.’

  ‘You get out. I shall be all right.’ Her good eye rolled despairingly at him. He thought, once I get out I can call the police. Cotton spoke again in his mock-cultured voice.

  ‘Lefty and Milky will see you safely away. We call him Milky because he drinks a lot of milk. That’s sensible, isn’t it?’

  He had begun to say that it was when the two men closed on him. Lefty quickly jerked his arm up behind his back so that he cried out with pain, but he managed to turn.

  ‘Fiona, I’m not going to leave you.’ He felt the absurdity of the words as they were uttered.

  ‘Don’t be a bloody fool.’ She was staring at Cotton, she did not even look at him.

  Lefty gave him a push. They were outside the flat and in the lift before the hold on his arm was relaxed. ‘Now we can be nice and friendly,’ the big man said in his hoarse whisper.

  In the flat Fiona said, ‘Carlos. Please.’

  ‘Get packed.’ She stared at him. ‘Nothing’s going to happen to you. Just get packed and go. I thought you had class. I don’t like tramps.’

  ‘You don’t like tramps.’ She laughed. ‘That’s good. You’re a tramp yourself. Do you think you fool anybody with the way you talk?’

  ‘Get out before I change my mind.’

  He followed her into the bedroom and stood watching. When she had finished she turned with her hand to her mouth. ‘Carlos, what are they going to do to him?’

  ‘Nothing. He wasn’t here. Right?’

  ‘He wasn’t here,’ she repeated. Her teeth were chattering. When she got outside she begun to cry.

  Chapter Four

  At the entrance to the apartment block Tony pointed towards Shepherd Market. ‘I’m going that way.’

  ‘Why, so are we,’ Lefty said. ‘Just nice for a stroll, isn’t it, Milky?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Milky had a clear tenor voice.

  There are street lights, Tony thought, it’s as bright as day, they can’t do anything to me here.

  His arm was suddenly jerked behind his back again and now they had turned into a narrow passage between houses, big black walls reared up on either side. They’re going to hurt me, he thought unbelievingly, and he put his hand into his jacket to get out the money, to tell them that he would pay them if they left him alone. He thought of that scene in the lavatories with Bradbury, of white delicate Jenny, and of the other dark alley from which he had escaped. I shall escape from this too, he thought, it’s my lucky night. But the gesture he made towards his wallet had been wrongly interpreted. The karate chop across his neck was decisive. His run of luck had ended.

  Milky put on a pair of gloves. He took the money from the wallet, an unexpected bonus, but left everything else. Later they gave the money to Carlos and it was split three ways. A couple of weeks afterwards Carlos met a girl named Eleonora Mainwaring, and she moved in with him. She was the daughter of a baronet and, as he said frequently, had genuine class.

  It was early morning before a passer-by noticed the body. The dead man’s identity was quickly established, and so was the fact that he had won a great deal of money in a gambling club. He was obviously the victim of a gang who had followed him around. The police thought it likely that the girl with him, who never came forward, was a finger for the gang but they were never able to prove this. The other contents of Jones’ wallet were littered round the body. It had rained during the night and everything was sodden. A wet piece of paper which had fluttered away to the other side of the passage remained unnoticed. In due course a road sweeper picked it up, found it illegible, and pushed it down a drain. It was the air reservation for Caracas.

  Inspector Bland Titles

  (in order of first publication)

  These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

  1. The Immaterial Murder Case 1945

  2. A Man Called Jones 1947

  3. Bland Beginning 1949

  Inspector Crambo Titles

  (in order of first publication)

  These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

  1. The Narrowing Circle 1954

  2. The Gigantic Shadow also as: The Pipe Dream 1947

  Joan Kahn-Harper Titles

  (in order of first publication)

  These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

  1. The Man Who Killed Himself 1967

  2. The Man Who Lost His Wife 1967

  3. The Man Whose Dreams Came True 1968

  4. The Players & The Game 1972

  5. The Plot Against Roger Rider 1973

  Sheridan Haynes

  1. A Three Pipe Problem 1975

  Novels

  (in order of first publication)

  1. The 31st of February 1950

&n
bsp; 2. The Broken Penny 1953

  3. The Paper Chase also as: Bogue’s Fortune 1956

  4. The Colour of Murder 1957

  5. The Progress of a Crime 1960

  6. The Killing of Francie Lake also as: The Plain Man 1962

  7. The End of Solomon Grundy 1964

  8. The Belting Inheritance 1965

  Non-Fiction

  1. Horatio Bottomley 1937

  2. Buller’s Campaign The Boer War & His Career 1974

  3. Thomas Carlyle The Life & Ideas of a Prophet 1954

  4. England’s Pride General Gordon of Khartoum 1954

  5. The General Strike 1987

  6. The Thirties 1954

  7. Tell-Tale Heart The Life & Works of Edgar Allen Poe 1954

  Synopses of Symons’ Titles

  Published by House of Stratus

  The 31st February

  Anderson was a bored, unhappy sales executive longing for something to liven up his monotonous life. But perhaps he wished too hard because it was not long before he found his wife lying dead at the bottom of the cellar stairs. An accident of course - so why wouldn’t the police believe him?

  The Belting Inheritance

  When a stranger arrives at Belting, he is met with a very mixed reception by the occupants of the old house. Claiming his so-called ‘rightful inheritance’ the stranger makes plans to take up residence at once. Such a thing was bound to cause problems amongst the family - but why were so many of them turning up dead?

  Bland Beginning

  A purchase at a second-hand bookshop seems an innocent enough event. Tony Shelton hadn’t expected it to be anything but that - and he certainly hadn’t expected it to throw him head first into the world of violence, blackmail and robbery. For it becomes clear that the book has a rather higher price than he paid for it - a price that was to lead to murder..

  The Broken Penny

  An Eastern-block country, shaped like a broken penny, was being torn apart by warring resistance movements. Only one man could unite the hostile factions - Professor Jacob Arbitzer. Arbitzer, smuggled into the country by Charles Garden during the Second World War, has risen to become president, only to have to be smuggled out again when the communists gained control. Under pressure from the British Government who want him reinstated, Arbitzer agreed to return on one condition; that Charles Garden again escort him. The Broken Penny is a thrilling spy adventure brilliantly recreating the chilling conditions of the Cold War.

  Buller’s Campaign

  A powerful and invaluable reassessment of the life of General Buller and of the part he played in British military history. Beginning with his struggle for the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1895, it goes on to portray his role in the Boer War, and on its path, reveals many of the Victorian Imperialist attitudes of the day. A man of numerous failures, General Buller has been treated unkindly by history but Symons here seeks to paint a more rounded picture. Whilst never attempting to excuse the General’s mistakes, he portrays Buller as a complex and often misunderstood character and reveals the deep ironies that surrounded so much of what he achieved. An exceptional book and an outstanding contribution to military history.

  The Colour of Murder

  John Wilkins was a gentle, mild-mannered man who lived a simple, predictable life. So when he met a beautiful, irresistible girl his world was turned upside down. Looking at his wife, and thinking of the girl, everything turned red before his eyes - the colour of murder. Later, his mind a blank, his only defence was that he loved his wife far too much to hurt her.

  The End of Solomon Grundy

  When a girl turns up dead in a Mayfair mews, the police want to write it off as just another murdered prostitute, but Superintendent Manners isn’t quite so sure. He is convinced that the key to the crime lies in ‘The Dell’, an affluent suburban housing estate. And in ‘The Dell’ lives Solomon Grundy. Could he have killed the girl? So Superintendent Manners thinks.

  England’s Pride

  General Gordon, charged with the task of defending Khartoum, was stabbed to death on 26 January 1885 when the Mahdi’s forces took the town by storm. Two days later, the Expeditionary force arrived to relieve Gordon but found the town firmly in the hands of the Mahdi. In England’s Pride, Julian Symons tells the story of the disastrous and tragic failure of this mission. Analysing events from both a political and military stance, and consulting a wide range of sources, he questions why the Gladstone Government had not acted sooner in the first place, and then, once orders had been given, what contributed to the complex chain of events that was ultimately to thwart the relieving force. Capturing in brilliant detail all the glory of Victorian times, England’s Pride is a vivid and dramatic book on a sorely neglected subject.

  The General Strike

  In May 1926, Britain was gripped by what became known as the General Strike. This downing of tools lasted for nine days, during which time it divided the people, threatened the survival of the government of the day and brought the country nearer to revolution that it perhaps had ever been. In this accurate and lively account, Symons draws on contemporary press reports, letters and oral sources, along with TUC records to provide an invaluable historical account of the remarkable event and the people and places that featured so prominently in it.

  The Gigantic Shadow

  Bill Hunter, TV personality, made his living by asking the rich and famous difficult and highly personal questions. But when the tables were turned and he found himself being asked about his own rather murky past, he wasn’t quite so sure of himself. Out of a job and little hope of finding another, he teamed up with the reckless Anthea to embark upon a dangerous and deadly plan that was to have murderous consequences.

  Horation Bottomley

  Horatio Bottomley was one of the most flamboyant characters of the twentieth century. From his inauspicious beginnings as a child in an orphanage, he made a series of extremely shrewd financial investments, went on to achieve Parliamentary success, and was reputed to have a mind to equal the finest legal brains in the country. From these dizzy heights he fell to sudden bankruptcy and the remainder of his life proved to be an eternal repeat of the cycle - huge success (he was nearly included in the post-war cabinet) to complete ruin. In this superb biography, Julian Symons brilliantly captures all the irony and drama in the life of this remarkable man, and creates a very readable, and all-too-poignant story of success and failure.

  The Immaterial Murder Case

  ‘Most immaterialists are a little mad. If you ever meet one, you should be most careful to keep your fingers crossed.’ American-born John Wilson and his troop of distinguished friends were well known in the fashionable parts of London. And at their social gatherings the very latest fad was ‘immaterialism’, and the quest for the perfect immaterial work of art - but what they hadn’t expected to find was the perfect immaterial murder.

  The Killing of Francie Lake

  Octavius Gaye, founder and creator of the hugely successful magazine empire, Plain Man Enterprises, saw himself as the original ‘plain man’. The truth however was rather different as Gaye was an unscrupulous tycoon with a strangely captivating nature who surrounded himself by a series of weak-willed puppets that he manipulated to his heart’s content. One such puppet was Francie Lake and as the plot unfolds, Symons reveals how and why Francie simply had to die.

  Tell-Tale Heart: The Life & Works of Edgar Allen Poe

  This biography strips away the myths that have grown up around the life of Edgar Allen Poe, and provides a completely fresh assessment of both the man and his work. Symons reveals Poe as his contemporaries saw him - a man struggling to make a living out of hack journalism and striving to find a backer for his new magazine, and a man whose life was beset by so many tragedies that he was often driven to excessive drinking and a string of unhealthy relationships. Fittingly written by another master in the art of crime writing, The Tell-Tale Heart brilliantly portrays the original creator of the detective story and reveals him as the
genius, and unashamed plagiarist, that he was.

  A Man Called Jones

  The office party was in full swing so no one heard the shot, fired at close range through the back of Lionel Hargreaves, elder son of the founder of ‘Hargreaves Advertising Agency’. The killer left only one clue; a pair of yellow gloves, but it looked almost as if he had wanted them to be found. As Inspector Bland sets out to solve the murder, he encounters a deadly trail of deception, suspense, and two more dead bodies.

  The Man Who Killed Himself

  Arthur Brownjohn has never quite got anything right. Whatever he does, it always seems to go more than a little awry. The same could be said for the murder of his wife - a bungled, inferior affair despite his having consulting all the experts in the field of killings, executions and dastardly deeds. Resolving never to repeat the same mistakes, he enlists the help of Major Easonby Mellon - a man who really knows what he’s doing!

  The Man Who Lost His Wife

  Gilbert Welton’s life changed one breakfast time - his wife, Virginia, announced she was leaving him. Perhaps not the expected beginning of a comedy, but Symons employs his customary skill and brilliant wit to reveal the funny side of the tale. The result is a hilarious and riotous look at the life of a very ordinary middle-aged man.

  The Man Who’s dreams Came True

  A likeable but rather hapless young man decides he’s tired of small-time games and attempts to break into the big league. However, he finds himself woefully out of his depth and ends up caught out in an ingenious back-firing murder conspiracy. Entertaining and full of suspense, Symons’ plot has enough twists to keep you guessing right until the final thrilling conclusion.

  The Narrowing Circle

  Dave Nelson was fiercely ambitious. First in line for the top job on a magazine, he had every right to feel lucky. So when Willie Strayte was offered the job instead, and then turned up dead twenty-four hours later and everyone pointed the finger at Dave, he felt his luck had run out. As the net draws tighter around him, he finds himself in a desperate struggle for survival.